(A coming of age novel with a twist from Jean Cocteau)

Another book first read many years ago but one I've revisited several times since - it's quite a disturbing read, but quite short in length (more of a novella really)...I'll say no more in case you want to read it! I've also always liked this book because of its title - its inspiration behind the name The Cocteau Twins (one of my very favourtest bands ever ever) is obvious

Needless to say, my two were a bit put out when I told them what the title was, and refused point-blank to cooperate, muttering something along the lines of "but WE'RE not terrible children..." at which I just burst out laughing, maybe too loudly. However, I managed to fire off this shot as only five minutes later, I caught Finn pounding on his sister...the shots of Naomi returning fire were all OoF (her fists do move quickly!) - this is the best of the violent, bloody but thankfully short-lived episode*

Once I'd administered first aid, I opened the file into ACR - I increased the Brightness and reduced Clarity a bit, then into CS3 for a B&W conversion (Default preset). I duplicated that B&W layer twice - I added a Curves adjustment layer to the top layer, altering the Red and Green channels to produce the lith effect. On the second duplicate layer, I added a strong Diffuse Glow and a bit of noise. I swapped the layer order so that the Diffuse Glow was on top, then reduced the Opacity of it to allow a bit of the lith effect layer to come through. Last but not least I flattened and resized for the web. I quite like this - the slow shutter speed has blurred the action but kept the background nice and sharp

Sunday 24th's sibling-rivalry entry to the Challenge; click here for other monochromed Pbasers in January

*I jest - this was a total set-up right from the start, although they did take the parentally-approved opportunity of a fight to exchange a few sneaky but devastating blows. And Finn & Naomi, if you ever read this, thank you for posing for me, and you're not 'enfants terrible' and nothing like Paul and Elizabeth, the children in the story :o))